Amid tight competition, Google has set its sights on becoming the world's biggest artificial intelligence (AI) company and its annual developer conference has proved this. At the opening of Google I/O 2018 the firm outlined its software plans for the next year and almost every aspect included AI.

CEO Sundar Pichai and a host of other top Google executives revealed where the company's focus lies during I/O's keynote. From the event at its Mountain View headquarters, Google demoed the next version of its Android operating system, showed off a revamped Google News, and added new features to its personal assistant.

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Many of the changes outlined by Pichai focussed on how machine learning, a subset of AI, was helping it to use the masses of data it collects to personalise its systems for users. If you didn't catch the full I/O keynote here's all the big Google news from the event.

Android P is getting personal

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The next version of Google's operating system for mobiles and tablets is codenamed Android P and its full name won't be revealed until later this year. While Google may be leaving us waiting on what it will be called, there's plenty of information on its main features. At I/O, Google revealed more details about what will be included in Android P.

Some of the biggest updates were focussed on user personalisation. For instance, it is introducing adaptive battery and brightness settings. These automatically change the settings based on how a person uses their phone. For the battery changes, the Android team worked with Google's DeepMind AI branch to build the machine learning techniques needed for personalisation.

Google has also been working on getting your phone to predict what you want to do next. Android P will have 'app actions' that know your location and time to suggest what you may want to do next. So, if you always call a family member at 7pm it will suggest making the call at that time.

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It's also introducing a new Dashboard to Android that will let users monitor their time using a phone or tablet. The dashboard, which can be found in the settings, will let people see how many times they've unlocked their phone, how long has been spent using apps and a detailed breakdown of notifications. Android P will also let people set timers on how long they want to use their apps each day and a new feature called Shush will put a phone into do not disturb when it is placed face down on a desk.

Google has already released an initial version of the new operating system – learn how to get the Android P beta here – and it will be releasing a full version for all users this Autumn.

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Gmail will write emails for you

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Two weeks before I/O 2018, Google announced a massive overhaul of Gmail. The design changes are the biggest for several years. But this isn't all Google has had up its sleeve for its email client. The firm has added the ability to make payments within the Gmail iOS application. Android users may have been able to do this for more than a year but the feature has taken its time to come to Apple's devices. Google has also added the ability to snooze messages until a later time.

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Pichai also announced a new Gmail feature called 'smart compose'. The method is an autocomplete for emails, using the firm's AI. In an example shown at I/O the feature suggested phrases to be added into an email as a person typed. In the future, your emails will be written for you.

Google Assistant can make your phone calls

The assistant is Google's competitor to Amazon's Alexa and with its initial release coming months after its main rival, there's been a lot of catching up to do. Scott Huffman, the vice president of engineering at Google, said it was adding six new voices to its voice assistant, adding the ability for follow-up questions to be asked and also allowing an option aimed at children where "please" has to be said as part of a voice command. (Amazon recently released an Echo aimed at kids).

In further efforts to keep up with Amazon, Google says its first home assistants with screens would be available from July. Google first announced these at CES 2018 and the devices are being created by Lenovo, LG, and JBL rather than internally at Google.

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Rather more experimentally, Google is also working on a new system called Duplex. This, Pichai says, brings together all of Google's AI efforts. In an example shown at I/O, Google demonstrated how its AI voice could phone a hairdressers or restaurant and book appointments. The AI can chat to an unsuspecting human who asks it questions and completes its bidding. However, don't get too excited as there hasn't been a release date on the feature yet.

Securing the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things already encompasses billions of devices and the number is only growing. Security remains a constant problem as devices are often shipped with default username and passwords as well as being difficult to update. Google's effort to tackle security issues is Android Things 1.0.

The operating system (OS) was first announced in 2016 but ahead of I/O Google officially released version 1.0 – its official website is here. The software is designed to work on IoT devices and developers that decide to use it will see their products receive Google security updates automatically for three years.

Android Things 1.0 is a pretty basic OS, but unlike Android it's a closed source meaning developers can't tinker with its code before implementing it on their devices. It's also been designed to run one app at a time. But its usages may be pretty wide as the first Google Assistant devices with screens – from Lenovo, LG, and JBL – will use the OS.

Google News will show you more news

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In October 2017, the creator of Google News criticised the platform for providing a platform for too many hoaxes surrounding breaking news events. Google has been working to improve its News service to iron out flaws.

It says it is making the service more personalised by providing 'briefings' that include stories that individual users are interested in, based on their search history. Naturally, it's doing this with its AI.

The company is also introducing a deeper view for news stories called 'full coverage' as it aims to quell criticism around the service. For certain new stories, the update will show multiple articles on one subject, including fact-checking and news stories from a variety of publications. The aim is to help get people get out of filter bubbles.

The new features are being launched on Android, iOS and the Google News website over the next week.

Google Maps will use your phone's camera

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Google also demonstrated an augmented version of Google maps that automatically loads streetview when a camera app is opened. The firm has called this a visual positioning system that recognises the buildings and landmarks that are in front of it.

Finding the right place to eat can be tricky. Google is introducing a new shortlist feature to its maps app. This allows you to bookmark places you may want to visit and share a list with friends who can vote on a preferred location.

Google is also making its the phone camera more powerful using its AI. Through its system called Google Lens the company is using the camera to scan objects. It demoned the ability to highlight words written on a page with the camera and automatically turn them into digital text.